


Pajamas

by walkingonthestars



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Cancer Arc, Canon Compliant, Developing Relationship, Friendship, Missing Scene, Season/Series 03, Season/Series 04
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-15
Updated: 2018-02-15
Packaged: 2019-03-18 22:13:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13690881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/walkingonthestars/pseuds/walkingonthestars
Summary: Scully buys Mulder pajamas. Takes place near the beginning of season 3 and the middle of season 4.





	Pajamas

After everything she had been through over the past week or two-- travelling to New Mexico with a dying Mulder in her backseat, discovering her name in an encrypted file about government secrets, and dealing with the death of Mulder’s father and her own innocent sister-- Scully wondered why she was focusing so much on buying Mulder some pajamas.

When he stumbled into her apartment, confused and fevered, she guided him into her room and made him rest in her bed. He passed out shortly afterwards, leaving her to tear the sweat-drenched clothes from his body to cool him down. She of course left his boxers on to maintain some modesty between them. But while she was frantically trying to keep Mulder in good condition, a thought entered her mind: she should have a spare set of clothes for him.

Now that her life had calmed down a bit, Scully decided to act on that thought. She perused the menswear aisle of her local department store and searched for something comfortable for Mulder. When she first entered the store, she planned on choosing the first thing she saw. But now that she saw the huge variety of colors and patterns, she find herself wanting to get the perfect set. Whatever that meant. She wondered what kind of pajamas Mulder liked. Did he even care? Probably not. But for some reason, Scully did. 

She examined each set of pajamas like they were the bodies she performed autopsies on. It had to be perfect. Nothing was perfect so far. She told herself that she was doing this for Mulder, that she was being a good friend. And that was true. But she tried not to acknowledge the other reason. She'd been avoiding thinking about Melissa. Her sister was dead because of her. Her mind couldn't handle the subject, so it tried to occupy itself with insignificant things. Like buying pajamas for Mulder. Scully had always been the kind of person who needed to be doing something productive at all times. She could never just “relax” or be alone with her own thoughts. Especially not now, when her thoughts consisted only of her sister. 

None of the pajamas were good enough. She gave up and settled on a nice-ish blue plaid set. Scully was about to take the set off the rack when something caught her eye.

She almost laughed out loud at the sight of it. A set of men's pajamas, patterned with UFOs and floating cows against a black background. This was the one. She made her way over to the abomination and took it off the rack. Holding it up, she now noticed that the set was very large. Not meant for those of a slimmer figure, like Mulder. But it was the only one of its kind. Scully debated with herself about whether or not to buy it. The practical side of her insisted that the plaid set was perfectly fine, that the UFO set wouldn't even fit Mulder and would be a waste of money. Scully was a practical person. She made good decisions. Buying the blue plaid set would be a good decision.

When Scully walked back into her apartment, she took the UFO pajama set out of the plastic bag and immediately put it in the bottom drawer of her dresser. She would remember it for the next time Mulder got himself into trouble and needed to sleep at her place. But despite Mulder's knack for trouble, the pajamas remained in the bottom drawer, unused, forgotten by Scully.

A little over a year later, Mulder was at Scully’s apartment with Chinese takeout and a rented movie. Their get-togethers were becoming more and more frequent. Neither of them wondered why. They both knew. Scully knew she might not be alive in a year. The chemo was going smoothly and her doctors tried to be optimistic, but the sad truth was that it was very unlikely she would beat her illness. But that wasn't something Scully wanted to think about at the moment. She was more focused on telling Mulder not to eat on the couch.

“I'm not gonna make a mess. I promise,” Mulder said.

“You also promised no more breaking into government property,” Scully retorted.

“Such high expectations!” Mulder threw his hands up in mock exasperation, getting a chuckle from Scully as she ate her own plate of rice and dumplings. 

“Just sit at the table here with me,” she said. “You can see the TV fine from here.”

“Yeah, if you don't mind getting cramps in your neck from craning it so hard.”

Scully sighed. “Fine. You can sit on the couch. But at least get a towel to put over your lap. There should be one in the bottom drawer of my dresser.”

“Gotcha,” Mulder said, already making his way into her room.

Scully picked at more of her meal and craned her neck to see the beginning of the movie Mulder had selected when she heard Mulder's voice from her bedroom. 

“You've got good taste in pajamas, Scully.”

She was about to ask what he meant when he walked out of her room, holding the tacky set of pajamas, covered in a pattern of cows and flying saucers, that she had bought over a year ago. She laughed.

“Those are for you, actually.”

Mulder frowned and held the pants to his waist. “Is this your way of telling me to lose weight?”

“No, that was the only size they had.” Scully got up from her chair to look at the pajamas. “Remember when you were sick last year, because of the water in your apartment? You came to my place and I had to take off all your clothes and get you into bed.”

“Ooh, keep going,” Mulder said. 

Scully ignored him. “I felt bad that I had nothing for you to wear, so I bought this afterwards.”

Mulder ran his thumb over one of the little cartoon cows. “Well, I like it. Not my usual style, but I like it a lot.”

Scully smiled as she looked at the pajamas, remembering what had been going through her mind that day and how much had happened since then. She briefly allowed herself to forget about her cancer and wonder what other things might happen in the future. “I knew you would,” she said.


End file.
